America is changing. The cultural changes - gay marriage, legalized marijuana, etc. - pervade America from New York City to Redlands, Calif. What is not pervasive is economic opportunity and a middle ground in politics.

I was deeply moved when the French Parliament, after observing a minute of silence for those slain in the Charlie Hebdo attacks, spontaneously broke into singing France's national anthem. It was the first time that had happened since 1918.

Ahhhh . 2015. Nobody knows for certain what the new year will hold. That's probably for the best - if we did know what was going to happen this year, we might be less inclined to even follow through on all those resolutions we've made.

With the new year approaching, everyone is taking a look back at 2014. What they're seeing isn't always pretty, but the truth is that there was plenty of good news in the past 12 months that should be appreciated.

In a March 2014 letter to CIA Director John Brennan, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) wrote, " . on only his third day in office, President Obama issued Executive Order 13491 ending the use of abusive interrogation techniques." On Dec. 9, Sen.

Civil rights leaders, led by Marc Morial of the National Urban League, met in New York City Thursday to discuss steps that should be taken to help rebuild trust between law enforcement officials and the citizens they are sworn to protect.

After months and months of delay, President Barack Obama has decided to issue an executive order of reforms to fix our broken immigration system. It's about time.
It's been over 500 days since the U.S.